Gig-gling at last: EU adopts gig work directive

The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a watered-down version of the EU’s long-awaited platform work directive at a plenary on Wednesday (24 April), ending two years of intense negotiations with 554 votes in favour and 56 against.

The directive is the bloc’s first attempt at regulating the growing gig work economy and seeks to ensure that workers benefit from the contractual status that best fits their relationship with digital platforms like Uber, Bolt or Deliveroo.

The file also creates new rules on algorithmic management in the workplace. It enshrines a complete prohibition on the processing of certain sets of data and ensures that significant algorithmic decisions – on dismissal, allocation of work, and remuneration – are overseen by a human being.

Its adoption shows that “the EU isn’t just a major regulator, but can actually protect people’s lives,” directive rapporteur Elisabetta Gualmini said in plenary.

The Council must still formally adopt the text – a procedural step which should cause no significant delays. Member states have two years to integrate and implement the directive into their national legal systems.

Commission data shows the number of platform workers is expected to grow from 28 million in 2022 to 43 million in 2025 – 5.5 million of whom could today be victims of contractual misclassification.

Wednesday’s adoption marks the end of a long cycle of intense negotiations, often loaded with concerns that the file might not even see the light of day by the end of this legislature.

Disagreements were particularly fierce over the creation of a new tool called legal presumption of employment, which looked to harmonise reclassification processes through which self-employed platform workers could become full-time employees with accompanying welfare rights.

Workers could convert to this status if they establish that the platform manages their work, known as a subordination link in labour law.

For a long time, the Council of the EU representing the 27 member states and the European Parliament could not see eye to eye on how the legal presumption would work, and what would be the criteria used to determine subordination.

Within the Council, there was a deep rift between those in favour of an ambitious directive with an extended scope, and countries who worried the file would stifle business innovation and negatively impact national employment levels.

The Belgian EU Council presidency eventually took the radical decision in February to water down the directive altogether, compared to the original European Commission version, hoping for a smoother adoption.

Subordination criteria, once a key feature of the text, were removed. Under the revised text, all member states are obliged to create a legal presumption in their national systems – with no clear guidelines over how each would work in practice.

This final, reduced version of the directive still faced heavy backlash from a group of countries – France, Germany, Estonia, and Greece – which threatened to form a blocking minority.

Member states eventually agreed on the text in March at a meeting of EU Labour ministers, with Tallinn and Athens swaying their votes in favour at the very last minute.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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